baggage

I am getting ready to leave for Romania, and I am stressing out about my baggage.

On my previous two trips I brought lots of clothes and medicines for the children, but this time, with the Tutova Clinic closed and the children scattered, I am instead bringing school supplies for Mihaela's school and for her daughters school.  Mihaela teaches Romanian literature in a high school in Barlad.  They have over 1,000 students, and exactly one whiteboard and one laptop in the entire school.  Mihaela's daughter Delia attends a primary school in Barlad, and they have very little in the way of arts & crafts supplies.

I have two enormous whiteboards still in their original packaging, and I've taped them together to make one big cardboard package.  They'll count as a second piece of baggage, subject to a $50 charge, and although I think they're OK weight-wise, I think they are a little over the combined-measurements limit.  I hope this doesn't turn into an enormous expense!

My suitcase was well over the 50 pound limit, so I had to put a lot of school supplies into my rolling carry-on bag, which now weighs about as much as a small car.  You have no idea how heavy crayons, pencils, children's scissors, pencil sharpeners, erasers, and flash cards can be, and I am bringing enormous quantities of all these things!  (Thank you, Oriental Trading Company!)

My carry-on contains my laptop, the afore-mentioned school supplies, some reading materials, a small quantity of make-up, and . . . most important of all! . . . my medicines.  It's ridiculously heavy, so I hope someone on the plane will help me get it into an overhead compartment.  (I am flying from Philadelphia to Frankfurt, then on to Bucharest.)

There's one piece of baggage I am trying not to bring:  expectations that this trip will be like the others.  The Tutova Clinic was such a wonderful place, and we volunteers enjoyed a really pleasant routine, with many conveniences and comforts.  The hotel was good, the food was excellent, the staff at the clinic was great.  On this trip, I'll be staying at the Occidental Hotel in Barlad, which, according to TripAdvisor, isn't great, and the children will be in at least two different locations in the city.  I have to be sure to be flexible, and accept whatever comes my way.